Who I am as a Teacher is…

Hello my loves!! Been gone so long! You know, I think about writing all the time, but when the inspiration doesn’t come, the inspiration doesn’t come. I often have all these lofty ideas for things I want to write about…and if they stay with me for longer than a few minutes, then chances are I am gearing up for something.

So, here we are, Saturday afternoon, and I am inspired!!

This morning I was in class, lying in Savasana, and I was reflecting on the teacher and the style of his teaching. All through my teaching, I have noticed how others teach and how effective it was. At times I have been more loving, generous, talky, picky, bitchy, loud, silent, strict, focussed, mean, nice, easy, carefree, specific, conscious, unconscious….the list goes on…in my teaching. I’ve been teaching almost 11 years, so I’ve been every type of teacher. I have tried on as many styles as I can think of on the path to teaching as me. I needed to borrow other people’s style and detail. I had to study how others teach, how students react to those teachers, what people say about them, how their tools worked for me…or not. I had to try it all on in order to see what fit!! I am the most at ease in my teaching now. The way I teach is the closest to just me, Ida, teaching yoga…not “Ida The Yoga Teacher” teaching class.

Back to class. I was hearing the teacher and listening to how he used his words. I noticed how he paced his class, how he controlled the heat, the air, the doors, etc. It started me thinking…in the evolution of teaching (I am assuming this is in everything we do, but I am only referring to teaching yoga, as that is what I know 😉 ), we start by gathering as much information as we can (mostly in the form of taking other people’s classes), and start to use this information in our own teaching. We try styles of speaking, intonation, pace, timing, body language, etc. (well, I hope everyone does this…especially as a young teacher-figure out who YOU are as a teacher, try it ALL on!), and soon we start to figure out who we are as our own teacher. The goal, I understand now, is to teach from who I am and use tools that I’ve learned along the way to gain more knowledge and just keep growing my teaching with what I learn through the growth of my own practice, as well as what I learn through teaching…haha, and would not forget to mention what I learn through LIFE…forever and always evolving.

All this made me think “who am I as a teacher?”…”who is he as a teacher?”…”who are we all as teachers?”….!?

I focus mostly on alignment and precision and eliminating the bull$#!t we all create in our own practice. Stand still, breathing normally, begin again. This morning who he was (at least how he was to me) is simple, concise, clean, easy (as in “at ease”, not that the class was not hard).

All the feedback I’ve gotten over the years, classes I’ve taken and all the different “techniques” I’ve tried and used over the years are all stepping stones and tools getting me to where I am now….I teach from who I am. I teach with the intention that everyone who leaves from my class feels INSPIRED to want to come back and try it again tomorrow. My intention is always to feel better…I want my students to always FEEL BETTER after class. Who I am as a teacher is precision. All those things work together because I tried it all on until the pieces came together. This is who I am now, it’s come together at this time like this and it feels complete and joyful. Some days I’m lower energy, and some days I’m higher…but always, who I am as a teacher is precision. My intention for ALL my students is to be INSPIRED to come back tomorrow and to FEEL BETTER.

Try it…who are you as a teacher? Make your goal to seek out and find as many techniques as you can until you figure out who you are as a teacher. Keep your intention clean and concise and allow yourself to be you, teaching yoga, with all the tools you have learned along the way…and will continue to learn…forever and always evolving.

That’s all I got this sunny Saturday, yogis!! Felix and I are gonna go head to meet our pack and get some exercise and vitamin D!! Have a wonderful weekend!